Australian V8 Supercars take on COTA in First USA

Status
Not open for further replies.
I wish I could go, but I've got way too much to do around here. Getting married in July and I'm trying to finish the preparations.

They're selling 3 day passes for under $100. Oh well hope they come back next year.
 
Glad to see them come here & hope the event does well. While I never schedule watching these races on TV every time I flip through the stations, I always seem to end up watching till the end. Good closed-wheel racing.
 
Just got back a few hours ago. I went Fri, Sat and Sun and had an absolute blast. The V8 Supercars are amazing in person. All of the crew people were really nice and happy to be here. It was really cool seeing so many Australians there watching the race, that is real dedication. Sat next to a FPR engineer on the flight out of Austin and he was really cool to talk to.

It would have been better if they had 2 100km sprints on Saturday and a 250km race on Sunday with 2 rubber compounds. I understand the logistics were daunting. The engineer I talked to said all the crew people would love to have it be an enduro with NASCAR or Indy drivers and maybe have another race in Long Beach since they are all already over here.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
bdcardinal, very cool.
Any pictures?


I have a ton on my iPhone, I will upload them in a bit. Got videos of all the standing starts for the Aussie cars and the World Challenge cars.
 
Wow that's wild bdcardinal! I was there also and took almost the same pics after the race. We were probably standing next to each other!
eek.gif
It was definetly a good time but I was a little disappointed in the action. Every time I watch them on TV it's some wild fender rubbing racing lol. They seemed a little tame in Austin. Maybe they were warned to be on better behavoir
blush.gif
 
Last edited:


My buddy Ray and I. I was the the FPR shirt. I bet you are in some of my pics haha. I had so many people asking where I got the shirt, there were no FPR products sold at the track, spent way way way too much money at the merchandise truck.

We sat next to a really awesome family from Australia, their kids were all decked out in FPR stuff, except for the "random one" the dad called him that had HSV stuff.

Ray was giddy the whole time, he drives a G8 and almost got whiplash seeing all the GTO/Monaros and G8s there.
 
Hahaha wow I think I saw you guys...that's wild! I see you were in the good seats in the shade. I live 30 miles from that track but we just got the grandstand seats up on the hill in turn one. It was a cool spot to see all the action in that crazy uphill turn though. My buddy from work has a 2012 Boss 302 so we hauled a** oops I mean drove up in that lol. Great time and great weekend. Oh and I work at a Ford dealer also so we are partners in crime!
grin.gif
 
Last edited:
Ours were not in the shade by about a foot. Literally the shade line ended at the seat next to ours. Luckily that end of the stands was pretty sparse so we moved around some. The Velocity Bar on the 2nd level of the Main Grandstand was heaven.

We had an Impala for a rental, boring but it got the job done. We were staying at the Airport Hilton, so about 10-15 minutes from the track.
 
O, funniest moment of the weekend. Friday night we had dinner at Hooters, when I was waiting at the merchandise thing with the waitress for the manager to do something with the computer she was asking us what we did in Austin. We said we were at COTA all day and she says, and I am not making this up "you here for the F1 race? I had a table of British guys like those guys over there." She pointed to a table with Aussies on it playing "drink beer" my friend and I just nodded.
 
Haha thats funny!! Guess she wasn't working at Hooters for her brains. We watched the last race on Sunday sitting on the grass up in turn one. It was great...we were surrounded bu Aussie "rednecks" lol. They were whooping it up and having a blast...great bunch of friendly guys...much different from the Nascar rednecks we see in Ft Worth every year.
 
Originally Posted By: SAJEFFC
Haha thats funny!! Guess she wasn't working at Hooters for her brains. We watched the last race on Sunday sitting on the grass up in turn one. It was great...we were surrounded bu Aussie "rednecks" lol. They were whooping it up and having a blast...great bunch of friendly guys...much different from the Nascar rednecks we see in Ft Worth every year.


No, brains were non-existent.

I swear the Aussies were the nicest people I have ever met. They would just come up to us out of the blue and start talking to us about cars and racing. One tried to strangle my friend when he found out how much Ray got his G8GT. They were all excited that we came from CA to watch the races, completely ignoring that they were from Australia and paid like 5 times what we did.

One interesting thing I noticed, none of the Aussies wore Nissan or Mercedes stuff, only Ford and Holden. A few thought it was odd that I was a Ford guy and he was a Holden guy yet we still talked.
 
This is STILL my fave form of sedan racing on the planet (yes even more than the much wilder looking DTM rides)!

THANKS for the pics!
thumbsup2.gif


It did always seem to me that the Blue Oval vs. GM rivalry/'hating' is MUCH MORE pronounced/INTENSE down under than it is here (even here back in the '60s muscle/pony car heydays).
I would not even be 'allowed to' like/respect/want a Boss 302/GT/etc. if I lived there, apparently.
frown.gif
 
Hi,
dailydriver - Well, Ford will cease vehicle production in OZ in 2016 after starting here in 1921!

GM is expected to follow suit, Mitsubishi has already gone and Toyota is analysing their position at present

This is all shades of England in the 1960s really

Here we are driven by Asia (as we must be - we are part of Asia) and the European influence is all via Imports.

We are 23m people and of 356 possible vehicle for purchase here the best seller sold 44000 in the last year - the sums tell the story

Interesting times
 
Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
dailydriver - Well, Ford will cease vehicle production in OZ in 2016 after starting here in 1921!

GM is expected to follow suit, Mitsubishi has already gone and Toyota is analysing their position at present

This is all shades of England in the 1960s really

Here we are driven by Asia (as we must be - we are part of Asia) and the European influence is all via Imports.

We are 23m people and of 356 possible vehicle for purchase here the best seller sold 44000 in the last year - the sums tell the story

Interesting times

Doug, I'm sorry to here that.
Even from afar, it's been interesting learning of the slant GM and Ford do down under. We even had the Ozzy built Pontiac G8 imported here (forget what Holden model it was called in OZ).

I guess that will be the end of the end of the V8 Super Cars Series?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top